Review: Neon, Camden St – Asian Street Food

Tuesday 3 July, 2012by jean

Some really interesting new restaurants have sprung up around Dublin in the last year or so, and I was really pleased to hear about one in particular that’s doing ‘Asian street food’ – Neon on Camden St. I’ve often bemoaned the lack of affordable Thai, Japanese and Vietnamese food in Ireland. It’s starting to catch on though, which is really good news to me.

Rebecca and I tried out Neon on a Thursday evening after a few cocktails. It’s a long room with wooden tables and has a casual but hip canteen-y feel, and was positively rammed when we dropped in. You order from the extensive menu and pay at the cash desk, and then it’s brought down to your table in white takeaway boxes.

Starters such as duck spring rolls, satay skewers and pork ribs are priced between €4.50 – €5.50, and main courses are €10-€11.50. There’s a great selection of everything from wok dishes to coconut curries. I had the Thai Beef Noodle Soup soup with beef to start, it was only €5.50 for a very large portion and absolutely mind-blowingly delicious and gorgeous. I love it. I want more. Rebecca had the duck spring rolls, which were also great – really packed with tender duck meat, rather than the soggy beansprouts which make so many spring rolls a damp disappointment. We shared the Khao Pad Krapow Gai fried rice dish, which was tasty and properly spicy.

All portions were really generous and we got a really decent amount of food for just over €20 all in. Each meal also comes with ice-cream cones and free access to the soft-serve ice-cream machine – a clever and generous little freebie that will really make Neon stick in people’s heads, I reckon. The takeaway containers came in handy when I was too full to finish my Pho but had no intention of leaving it behind. It was a shame to see so many other empty containers piled up on tables though, and plastic cutlery everywhere; there’s probably a greener way to do it.

But anyway – Neon is tasty, friendly and buzzy, with some food done really well and really affordably. I’ll definitely be back, and I was really pleased to see that I live JUST inside their delivery zone.

Have to disagree. I’ve even given them a second chance and ordered the minced chicken salad last week. I just think they oversalt and oversugar everything. I keep hearing rave reviews and just don’t understand it… is it me?

Putting stuff in takeaway container so I can carry it 10 feet and put it in a bowl, and then throw away the container. It isn’t very green. I’m not a fan of this. Yeah, I get all the reasons why it makes it cheap and fast for the owner. They could re-think this a bit.

Otherwise, yeah, the place is quite good. Nice atmosphere. I’ve eaten there twice. Green duck curry was good. And I had the curry with 4 chillis indicating i is hot, I forget which one it was, and yes, it was very hot. Nicely so. And I’ve shared the starter combo platter. Nice dips came with that.

Went back here last week with friends, it really is perfect place for a quick and healthy-ish bite before the pub. Everyone was stuffed, enjoyed what they ate and we didn’t spend a fortune. The soft serve ice cream is a brilliant idea. The takeaway containers irritated me more than the time I went with Jean because, this time, we finished all our food and it felt really wasteful chucking out so many of them (there was a few of us). I do think Neon should reconsider this.